Shutout gives Owls first win at Tulsa since 2005

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Published 6:19 pm, Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Rice women’s tennis team found success at the Case Tennis Center for the first time since 2005 on Sunday, picking up a 4-0 shutout over Tulsa. With the win, the 64th ranked Owls (5-7) gained a split of their weekend trip to Oklahoma.

“I am really proud of the team for the fight, energy, and quality of play out there today,” Rice head coach Elizabeth Schmidt said “This was a strong rebound after a tough day on Friday (a 4-0 loss at #8 Oklahoma State) and we really did a nice job taking it to them.”

The win snapped a five-match losing streak for the Owls against the Hurricanes (9-7) in Tulsa and was just their third there in school history. Rice’s last win in Tulsa was a 5-2 dual win in 2005, which was also Rice’s last regular-season win over Tulsa. The Owls dropped the regular season meetings in each of the last two years to Tulsa, only to defeat the Hurricanes in each of the last two Conference USA Championship matches.

The two old rivals, meeting for the first time as non-conference foes, began the match in much the same fashion as many of their recent C-USA showdowns, with the doubles point coming down to the wire.

After Savannah Durkin and Solomiya Zinko breezed to 6-1 win on court three, the Hurricanes answered with a 6-3 win on two. At the same time Rice’s Natalie Beazant and Liat Zimmermann saw Tulsa’s 47th ranked duo of Ksenia Laskutova and Renata Kuricova scramble back from a 5-3 deficit to tie the match at 5-5. Zimmermann put the Owls back in front with a strong service game and the Owls then grabbed the first point with a service break in the 12th game.

Rice left little room for Tulsa to mount a comeback in singles taking five of six first sets, settting the stage for straight-set wins by Beazant, Lindsey Hodge and Katherine Ip to cement the win. For the second consecutive match vs. Tulsa, Ip delivered the clinching point. Unlike her tense, three-set in 2014 to capture the C-USA title, Ip closed out this match with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rongrong Leenabancho.

Beazant improved to 8-1 on the year with the win. Ip won her third straight and improved to 5-3 while playing in the second position in the lineup. Hodge won for the third time in four decisions since she returned to the lineup after an early-season ankle injury.

Rice returns to the GRBTC on March 15 when they host Memphis as part of a concurrent dual with the Rice men’s team who will be hosting San Diego at the same time. First serves are set for noon.